22.10.1869
Born in Großauheim (Hanau district)
1882 - 1884
Attends classes by the hour at the Royal Academy of Drawing in Hanau
1884 - 1888
Day student at the Royal Academy of Drawing in Hanau, attends the chiselling class, among others; from 1887 first professional activity in parallel in a manufactory for artistic metal goods in Hanau
1888
Moves to Berlin. He works in various workshops as a modeller
1890 - 1892
Studies at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts; from 1890 he also works as an assistant in the studio of the Berlin sculptor Alexander Calandrelli and for other sculptors' studios. In 1890, he won a season ticket for the Berlin Zoo in a raffle organised by the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts. Depictions of animals now became his speciality
1892/93
Attends the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts: in the winter semester he attends the class of the animal painter Paul Meyerheim and in the summer semester of 1893 the sculpture class led by Ernst Herter. He models a seated young lion, which later (1898) becomes one of his most successful sculptures in a revised form
1894
Assistant in the studio of Reinhold Begas
1895 - 1897
Master student of Reinhold Begas in his studio at the Prussian Academy of Arts. Gaul works on Begas' Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument (formerly in front of the Berlin Palace), for which he creates two monumental lions (today Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, Tierpark) and two coats of arms for the colonnade. He also worked independently of the Begas studio on a life-size statue of an orangutan (formerly Berlin, Natural History Museum)
1897
Wins the competition for the Rome Scholarship of the Dr Paul Schulze Foundation awarded by the Prussian Academy of the Arts
1898
From March, stays in Rome. Gaul meets Louis Tuaillon and comes into contact with Neoclassicism. Returns to Berlin in November. In the same year, the Berlin National Gallery acquires Gaul's "Pelicans" (1897). This is the first time an art museum acquires a work by the sculptor. During and after his stay in Rome, Gaul changed his conception of form. Instead of the painterly, neo-baroque surface formation, it became firmer and clearer.
1899
Participation in the first exhibition of the Berlin Secession, of which Gaul is a member.
1900
Gaul exhibits at the World Exhibition in Paris. Marriage to Clara Haertel in the same year. He signs a contract with the Cassirer Gallery and completes the life-size sculpture "Lioness"
1901
Breakthrough to international recognition with the "Lioness" (1899-1901), which he showed in the Berlin Secession exhibition
1904
Installation of the "Bear Fountain" in the vestibule of the Wertheim department stores' on Leipziger Platz, Berlin, commissioned by Alfred Messel, owner of the department stores'. Gaul gets to know the young Georg Kolbe, whom he supports professionally. Gaul takes on Max Esser as a pupil, who will become his most important employee
1905
Erection of the "swan chick fountain" in Krefeld
1906/07
Alfred Lichtwark, director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, acquires ten Gaul bronzes for it, including the life-size bronze "Junger Löwe/Stehende Löwe" (1904)
1906
The architect Alfred Messel commissions Gaul to create two panther groups for the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt.
1907
Construction of a house with studio near the Roseneck in Berlin-Grunewald; Gerhard Marcks visits Gaul several times in his studio
1909 - 1911
For the so-called Crown Prince's Silver, a wedding gift for the Prussian crown prince and princess, Wilhelm and Cäcilie, Gaul creates two elephants bearing tall obelisks with the names of the donor cities (Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace); Gaul takes Toni Stadler into his studio
1911 - 1913
Gaul's "Duck Fountain" is erected in Hardenbergstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg, followed in 1912 by the "Stag Fountain" in the park next to Schöneberg Town Hall. Gaul carries out further important commissions, including the sculptural jewellery for the Hamburg Lace Makers' House
1914 - 1918
After the outbreak of the First World War, Gaul was not called up for military service. In 1915, he travelled to the Eastern Front on behalf of the Supreme Army Command, creating drawings and prints depicting soldiers' graves. In 1916, he campaigned for Ernst Barlach to be discharged from military service. He contributes to Paul Cassirer's magazines "Kriegszeit" and "Der Bildermann". He increasingly modelled in small format, but also produced large-format commissions in model form. Due to the war, these could only be cast in bronze after the end of the First World War. In 1917, Gaul portrays Gerhard Hauptmann, with whom he is friends
1919
Large special exhibition at the Paul Cassierer Gallery on the occasion of the sculptor's 50th birthday
1921
Inauguration of the "Elephant Fountain" in Leverkusen (Havensteinstrasse). Gaul has been suffering from laryngeal cancer for a long time. In spring 1921, he travelled to Merano for a cure. Gaul dies on 18 October 1921
1922
Memorial exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts
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